theashtraysays

Only an occasional fan of historical fiction, and this one was a tad long, but I greatly enjoyed the read. 

Heckuva show indeed! 
I’ll just add that the venue was kind of like a much less bougie version of Salvage Station in Asheville if you’ve been to that one before it was washed away. 

Wilco - bookending my Europe music trek 

Jon Batiste 

Deep Sea Diver opens. I rather doubt we’d get the “evening with” double Wilco sets. 

Great band out of (I think) the PNW somewhere. They’ve opened for Wilco before a few years back. 
 

This is on the wilcoworld page -

As I missed night one in the forest in Antwerp, I can’t compare the two but I can say that this show was entirely delightful. Such a gorgeous evening and setting, a few nice setlist surprises, and a warm crowd who packed out the cozy little amphitheater to the far corners. 
In addition to the “sign decline” mentioned above (not that I’ll be deterred of course), I’ll add one bit of banter that I came across. 
Just before Via Chicago, in the quiet moment as the band was settling into the instrument change, someone (a woman I think) in the rail area in front of Nels let out a good solid “WOOO”.  Jeff happened to be looking right at her at the time and apologetically said something like “I’m sorry- I was looking right at you just now”, and then proceeded to maintain direct eye contact with her for the opening lyric of “I dreamed about killing you again last night, and it felt alright to me” before giving a grin and continuing on as normal. 
And for sure the lyric flub on Hate it Here was a hoot - I for one was quite nervous that the floor was NEVER gonna get swept, but he came around at the end. 
Macie on Quiet Amplifier was beautiful, as was her addition to the abbreviated drone on LTYT and segue into Spiders. Quiet Amplifier is the highlight of the show for me these days. 
Well, at least till we bring back You Satellite…

Happy to have made the show, see friends old and new, and spend a delightful evening in the park with Wilco. 

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band 

Wilco 

I still have my ticket to that 2016 show.... 

'Twas a delightful evening indeed.  Louisville is my only real shot at a "local" show, so it was great seeing all my local Wilco pals out and about for this one.  I do love the venue, despite the abyss in front of the stage.  Fond memories of my second-ever Wilco show there ("Panties??"), and more than one rebuke of the NovaSign ("We know you stuffed the ballot box, and we don't support that kind of chicanery", and "No, we're not gonna play that one.  You should probably just leave now").  Ah, youth....

For some reason I was thinking that the "Evening With" shows had a shorter first set and a longer main set (more like actually opening for themselves), but as the first set reached the one-hour mark I knew we were in for quite an evening.  Sunken Treasure scratched the wayback itch, and Quiet Amplifier is my new favorite recent release.  But plenty to like in this extended edition show. 

The empty front row spots (once announced from the stage) led to more than one would-be seat hijackers coming down the aisle next to us and attempting to claim them, only to be displaced by the rightful owners appeared.  But overall security wasn't too concerned about folks slipping down the aisle and hanging out for a bit, as long as there was some space in the aisle to walk.  Since the crowd started standing and remained standing the whole time (YAY!!), they kinda blended in.  And since the rail itself was 10-12 feet away through the deep pit from the actual front of the stage (and since the band was set back a few feet from that precarious edge of the massive stage), there wasn't much point in trying to crash the rail. 

I did try and start a PAT PAT PAT chant at the end of Falling Apart, but that got zero traction and a couple odd glares.  Sheesh. 

4 hours ago, SarahC said:

See you tomorrow? 

Yep! Making my way back to Kentucky via Asheville. See ya up front.

Wilco (1 of 3)

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds

The guy in the PBR shirt…. 
I was right behind him at that Ryman show. He was noticed by Jeff and was actually awarded the “best behaved fan” trophy that night. I forget his name but the whole crowd started chanting it at one point. 

At the end of the show, I was chatting with him a bit. I had bought a poster at that show (a Hatch print which quickly sold out).  He noticed the poster and said “I’ll trade you this trophy for that poster”.

To which I replied “well buddy, you’re not gonna believe this… but I already have one. And our club meeting are the first Thursday of each month.” 
 

Glad to hear he’s still out and about. 

Yo la Tengo (night 1 of 4; I’ll spare you the additional 3 postings) 

On 5/7/2025 at 4:30 PM, Albert Tatlock said:

I wonder if that has ever happened for Wilco, ha!

Ta.

I have a recording of a fairly recent-ish show I think from Louisville where panties were thrown into the stage which got some commentary from Jeff that it “harkened back to younger days” before adding “alas”. 

Katie Pruitt 

Alejandro Escovedo

paging our Winnipeg ambassador @TCP

Watched Conclave on a flight last week. I thought it was quite good - did a nice job of showing the catholic church as a troubled institution with many sincere people within. I liked the acting and the Hollywood twisties. 

But having Stanley Tucci’s character named “Bellini” was pretty doggone epic. 

Yo la Tengo

MJ Lenderman (night 2, but just one show for me tonight).
(caught about half of his show from the back last night... looking forward to seeing the whole thing a bit closer tonight).

Aaron Lee Tasjen. 
 

Also MJ Lenderman 

Yes, two shows - two venues - same city (Lexington). Gonna try to scoot out from ALT (no opener) and catch most of MJ’s set (he has an opener). 
#toughchoices

#cakeandeatittoo 

Robyn Hitchcock

Bonnie Prince Billy